Gazetteers

Synonyms

Knowledge organization systems; Ontologies; Place names; Toponyms

Definition

A simple definition is that gazetteers are dictionaries of placenames. The digital gazetteer as a component of georeferenced information systems, however, is more formally modeled. A gazetteer is defined as a collection of gazetteer entries, each of which contains, at a minimum, the tuple N, F, T where N is a place name, F is a formal expression of geographic location – a footprint, and T is a place type expressed with a term (or code) from a typing scheme. Applications often require, in addition, relationships between gazetteer entries, documentation of time frames, and additional information (as described below). The gazetteer model is a type of knowledge organization system (KOS) – or ontology – which can be modified to represent other classes of spatial-temporal information, such as named time periods and named events [3].